Herbs for Cancer
Cancer
Boosting Immunity
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Although there is still no cure for cancer—pharmaceutical
or herbal—medical researchers are busy searching the plant
world for an answer to this plague. Medical science already
uses compounds derived from the Pacific yew tree to treat
ovarian cancer and from mayapple for certain lung and testicular
cancers. While these toxic herbs are not suitable for home
remedies, there are many herbs that can help you ward off
cancer in the first place.
Researchers
at the National Cancer Institute's Designer Foods program
are currently investigating cancer-fighting compounds in
foods and herbs. Researchers there and elsewhere are coming
up with some interesting findings. Research conducted at
the University of Illinois in Chicago, for example, has
shown thatthyme contains 40 cancer-preventing substances
and sweet basil has more than 30. And this research is not
limited to the United States.
In
a study conducted at the National Institute of Nutrition
in Hyderabad, India, chronic smokers took turmeric daily
for a month. Their bodies converted and eliminated three
to eight times more carcinogens than smokers who did not
eat this spice. Because of this study, researchers are encouraging
Indians—whether they smoke or not—to increase their consumption
of turmeric. In New Jersey, researchers at Rutgers University
speculate that regular use of even small amounts of culinary
herbs likethyme, basil and turmeric can reduce your risk
of cancer.
Garlic
may also protect against some forms of cancer. A survey
of 4,000 Italians and Chinese was reported at the First
World Congress on the Health Significance ofGarlic in Washington,
D.C., in 1990. The results of this survey led researchers
to conclude that people who eat lots of garlic and its relatives,
including onions, leeks, chives and scallions—at least 25
to 50 pounds a year over 20 years—have fewer cases of stomach
cancer.
Other
studies lend support to the healing powers of garlic. Mei
Xing, M.D., of Shandong Medical College, for example, found
that the residents of two towns in China had similar lifestyles
and diets with one exception—the inhabitants of Gangshan
ate about six cloves of raw garlic daily while their neighbors
in Qixia ate none. The residents of Gangshan also reported
ten times fewer cases of stomach cancer than those who live
in Qixia. In the laboratory, both raw and driedgarlic have
been shown to destroy tumor cells. It takes about three
hours for garlic compounds to enter the cell, but once in
place they get to work almost immediately.
HERBS
FOR TREATING CANCER
If
you do get cancer, there are some herbs that can be used
to reduce the effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Keith
Block, M.D., medical director of the Cancer Care Program
at Edgewater Medical Center in Chicago, is researching how
herbs can be used in conjunction with standard cancer treatments.
He has found that cancer patients undergoing standard treatment
have fewer side effects, such as hair loss and nausea, when
they take herbs that benefit the immune system (see "Boosting
Immunity" in chapter 41).
So
far, Siberian ginseng has not been proven to have any direct
effect on 17085PG109 cancer cells, but it can increase general
resistance and improve side effects resulting from chemotherapy
and radiation. In Russia in 1964, a tincture of Siberian
ginseng was given to 38 people with similar types of cancer
of the mouth an hour before they went through 14 days of
radiation therapy. They experienced numerous benefits, including
better sleep, an improved appetite and even a renewed interest
in life, as well as normalization of blood pressure, pulse
and breathing rates. Also, the wounds that resulted from
the cancer healed approximately one month before those of
the people in a similar group not taking the herbs. The
researchers concluded that Siberian ginseng can counter
the harmful effects of radiation treatment and increase
the rate of healing. Two years later, another Russian experiment
showed thatSiberian ginseng decreased the toxic effects
of chemotherapy used to treat breast cancer.
Laboratory
studies in China and thousands of years of experience have
paved the way for various herbs to be used in combination
with Western drug treatments in Chinese hospitals. The herbs
given to people with cancer includeastragalus, ligustrum
and Siberian ginseng.
In
numerous studies on astragulus and ligustrum, these two
herbs improved the immune response in most of the people
with cancer who took one or the other or both. Researchers
even concluded that astragulus contains "one or more
extremely potent naturally occurring immune stimulants."
At the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, researchers
have found that immune cells taken from people with AIDS
and cancer became more active in the test tube and that
these people felt physically and emotionally strengthened
after being treated withastragalus.
Medical
doctors in Japan are also more open to using herbs than
are their counterparts in North America. After the National
Cancer Research Center in Tokyo discovered in the 1980s
thatshiitake mushrooms could be used to shrink cancerous
tumors, Japanese hospitals began giving their patients a
shiitake concentrate to increase their immune response.
Japanese doctors also used an extract of a mushroom called
polporus to improve the expected cancer survival rate by
a few years.
One
herb that has had a lively history is pau d'arco. This medicinal
plant has been used since the time of the Incas and the
Aztecs to treat various immune-related problems, including
poisonous snakebites. In the 1960s, the Brazilian press
published reports that included hundreds of testimonials
that declared pau d'arco a cancer cure, and people were
soon ripping the bark off trees throughout the country,
even climbing into the Botanical Gardens in Campinas to
do so. These people were spurred on by the miraculous story
of a young girl in Rio de Janeiro who was cured of cancer
after an angel visited her and told her about the bark.
A newspaper account also told of University of São
Paulo botanist Valter Accorsi, Ph.D., who daily dispensed
the bark for free to crowds that sometimes numbered 2,000
people! Unfortunately, the sensational stories made most
scientists cringe, and the little research that was done
at places like the São Paulo Hospital of Clinics
was short-lived.
A
colleague of Dr. Accorsi, however, was also reporting success
using pau d'arco. The award-winning botanist Teodoro Meyer,
Ph.D., had been a professor at the Miguel Lillo Institute
and Herbarium in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina,
where he had supplied herbs for study by pharmaceutical
companies in the United States. He developed an alcohol-free
elixir that he distributed as a treatment for immune-related
disorders, including cancer. He observed the effects of
this elixir on the people he gave it to, and reported an
improvement in their "general state and their spirits."
Dr. Meyer died in 1972 after years of frustrated attempts
to convince the world ofpau d'arco's healing abilities.
One of the few clinical studies on pau d'arco, done in 1980
in South America, showed that this herb reduced most of
the symptoms, especially the pain, in people who had various
types of cancer. The only reported side effect was a few
cases of nausea.
When
researchers at the National Cancer Institute studied pau
d'arco for use as a cancer treatment, they found that it
contained only moderate tumor-inhibiting abilities, but
did produce a definite immune response. Other research has
shown that the herb is sometimes effective in fighting cancer,
malaria, viruses and bacterial infections. Herbalists use
it to treat such immune-related disorders as asthma, rheumatism,
eczema, psoriasis, shingles and yeast infections. Some success
has also been reported with diabetes. For more on the history
and science ofpau d'arco, see Kenneth Jones's book pau d'arco.
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The information on this page has been extracted from http://www.mothernature.com/Library/
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